A Maritime Union for Three Canadian Provinces? A Smart Move, But Don't Hold Your Breath

By Keith Edmund White, Editor-in-Chief

Three Conservative Senators are pushing for New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island to merge, hoping that a merger will ease the fiscal pressures facing this Atlantic trio.

From Aly Thomson's HuffPoCAN: 

The age-old idea of merging the three Maritime provinces has been resurrected despite an overwhelming lack of political will from an array of government levels. A trio of Conservative senators — John Wallace of New Brunswick, Mike Duffy of Prince Edward Island and Stephen Greene of Nova Scotia — are making a plea to consolidate the Maritime provinces, an idea that has intermittently reappeared over the past century. But several political figures — including Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter and Robert Ghiz of P.E.I. — have denounced the idea in recent days, saying the provinces are already working co-operatively. Donald Savoie, Canada research chair in public administration at the University of Moncton, said the fiscal challenges facing the Maritime provinces and an aging population are what have brought the idea to the floor once again.

 The National Post adds a historical wrinkle Atlantic province merger proposals: 

The idea of a Maritime union, however, is not new. It predates Confederation: the Charlottetown Conference in 1864 was supposed to see representatives from the three Maritime colonies discuss a union but it was reworked to accommodate what is now Ontario and Quebec. It became a grander union — Canada — and the more modest idea of a Maritime union never happened. For 1.8 million people we are terribly over-governed. But the bigger part of this is working in concert … to create economic development The idea periodically gets new wind in its sails. In the 1960s a commission studied it, in the ’70s renewed debate over the Constitution sparked union talk anew. In 1996, at a conference on the idea by the Institute of Island Studies [ISS] at the University of Prince Edward, it was referred to as the “always-the-bridesmaid of an idea.”

[Additional note:  Check out ISS's 2008 Land Use Conference here.] 

And there's this 1941 article on a Royal Commission report pushing a Maritime Union and Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.

And for those wanting to learn about one of the Atlantic provinces in-depth, check out Donald Savoie’s July 2010 e-publication, Invest More, Innovate More, Trade More, Learn More:  They Way Ahead for Nova Scotia.